


The Scratch

by Laina



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/F, F/M, Humanstuck, M/M, Multiple Pairings
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-08-31
Updated: 2013-08-31
Packaged: 2017-12-25 04:25:13
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,540
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/948601
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Laina/pseuds/Laina
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Down off the main roads there's a small café called "The Scratch". It serves delicious coffee during the day and relaxing alcohol at night. The owner is a gracious host and more than willing to listen to all your problems. It's because of him that the place is so well known as the place to go when you seek direction in your life. His name? Why, I'm called Doc Scratch! My shop is known for the great services provided to every customer."</p><p>A fic with many chapters and many many different pairings all based in the same universe. NSFW chapters will be skippable.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A Sunken Fish

**Author's Note:**

> I've had the idea for this for so very long. I'm happy to finally be posting the first part! It starts out with erifef, but I will be going into other pairings later so I hope you stick with me!

"Down off the main roads there is a small café called ‘The Scratch’. With a goal of helping its customers unwind and let go of their problems, it is a place where you can cozy up with delicious coffee during the day and melt away your stress with relaxing alcohol in the evening. The owner is a gracious host who is more than willing to listen to all your problems, making the café famous as the place to go if ever you seek direction and advice. His name? Why, I am called Doc Scratch! My shop is known for the great services it provides to every customer."

\--

It is really a shame there are not more customers today. Just the regular, a blond kid in shades, sitting in the corner on his laptop, like he always was.

I pick up one of the coffee mugs and quietly wipe it, watching as people outside the window pass by the shop. One such passerby catches my attention. Why he is wearing such warm clothing on a day that was this hot, it is quite a mystery to me. Perhaps that scarf is just for fashion, but it certainly looks warm.

Oh well, I suppose we cannot attempt to understand all the trends that we might come across in our lifetime. I think there is a name for that style. Hipster? Yes, hipster. I am sure that is correct. People stop in and talk about it sometimes. They like to show me pictures, you see.

But then he walks by a second time. I find myself wondering if he is lost. He walks by once more, then stops to lean against the building, taking out his phone. Perhaps he is waiting for somebody. Well, that would be nice for him.

I put away the mug and start on the next one. They aren’t really dirty, I just like to clean them to make sure they are sparkling for the customer who uses them next.

That is what it takes to be a great host, after all.

Suddenly, I hear the bell chime. The bell from the front door, meaning somebody has just walked in. I finish wiping the mug, then look up as they sit down.

Oh. Well, would you look at that. Mr. Hipster Fashion himself. I smile at him, placing the mug in front of me. He is going to get some coffee. They always do. Even if they don’t order. I can tell right away he is the brooding type, especially by the way he has his eyebrows furrowed above his large glasses.

“What can I get you?” I ask him, already brewing the coffee.

“Uh…” he says.  “Anythin’ strong.”

Oh, so he is that type, is he? I have to admit, I am surprised. I expected him to get a dressed up sort of coffee. Something with a lot of whipped cream and milk and cinnamon sprinkled on top. People are like that nowadays. I enjoy making it. It is too bad, really.

I place a steaming cup of coffee in front of him. Black. He wanted it strong.

He stares at it a moment.

“Coffee?”

I laugh, because it is obvious from his expression that he was expecting alcohol.

“Sorry kid, I only serve alcohol past six, you will have to make do with this.”

He stares at it again. “Uh…” he says slowly.

I start wiping down the counter. It is silent for a minute. He hesitates for a moment, then slowly put the cup to his lips. If he took a sip, it was not much of a sip.

“Could I get some cream in this? I uh, usually drink half an’ half.”

“Sure thing.” I place the creamer next to him. “Knock yourself out, kid.”

“Ah, I’m not a kid. My name is Eridan,” he says, pouring the cream in his coffee and stirring. I chuckle.

“I see, nice to meet you then, Eridan,” I say. He nodes, then takes out his phone. He does nothing, simply stares at it. My interest is piqued. After all, not many people just stare at their phones with the screen off.

I turn to empty out the coffee I brewed for him. He has barely touched the first cup, so I highly doubt that he will be having a second cup. I need my coffee to be fresh for the customers after all.

“So you have some sort of romance happening between you and that phone or is it complicated?”

Eridan stared at me for just a moment, then he opened his mouth, “It’s gettin’ pretty complicated.” He smirked. “It seems like it never wants ta tell me if I should call people or not. An’ it never seem to ring.”

He leaned back on the stool. “I’m startin’ to wonder if it’s cheatin’ on me, you know?”

I realize a lot about him now.

“So was it your girlfriend? Boyfriend?” I like to be inclusive with these kinds of questions. You can just never be sure.

“W-what? No I’m uh, waitin’ for a callback from an audition, that’s all. I’m just nervous.”

Well that is obviously a lie. But he does not want to talk about it, so I guess I will leave him alone.

Ten minutes pass in silence. I am accompanied by the sound of Eridan tapping his fingers on the counter and the regular on his laptop. I really enjoy times like these, where it is just quiet and really allows for good thinking. I start putting cups back in the cupboard.

“It was a girl,” came Eridan’s voice from behind me. “A really beautiful, fantastic girl.”

I turn and face him now. I was waiting for him to tell me his story. It only takes a short while before most people tell me their problems. The silence is too much to handle for them.

“An’ one a my friends. Or at least I thought so, he’s called Sol. I thought he was reliable, we started hangin’ around each other and it was entertain’, at least. See, I wasn’t exactly datin’ her, the girl, Fef. I swim with her sometimes, we’re on the swim team at school. I don’t really even enjoy swimmin’. I just like watching her face light up when she swims her laps, or beats her best  time. The way she moves so gracefully when she’s in the water is captivating. She’s so cheerful an’ happy all the time an’ seeing her like that makes me happy too.”

He took a slow sip of his coffee. It was probably cold by now, what a shame.

“I told Sol I liked her not too long ago. I told him exactly what I just told you. He didn’t say much in response, now that I’m thinkin’ on it. It was because Fef an’ I had a fight. Because I can’t seem to do anythin’ right around her. Today I went to apologize to her. I brought flowers too, I was prepared to just tell her why I even did stupid stuff like that. An’ why it was cause a her that my heart beats so fast. I had a script but it’s not like it mattered. Sol was already there. He didn’t even have a shirt on. Fef was yellin’ at me so I just kinda stormed away.”

Ahh, so that’s what happened. Eridan put his head in his hands. I cannot do anything to comfort him, but I allowed him a small moment of silence.

“I don’t know what I should do now,” he said finally.

“Well..” I started slowly. “What do you want to do?”

 


	2. Confession Connection

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The second chapter of The Scratch, featuring erifef still (and still for a little while!)

“Well,” said the old barista. “What do you want to do?”

It was a simple question, but Eridan was stumped. What he wanted to do? Well, he wanted to fix it. But it wasn’t that simple obviously. How ridiculous could this guy get? How did he even manage to get him to say this much in the first place?

He had no answer for the man.

He obviously saw the confusion on Eridan’s face.

“It does not have to be complicated. You can want something simple, too.”

“I want.. to fix it, I guess. I want to be with her. I don’t want Sol to be around her like that… even if it’s a little selfish.”

“Well that’s a good start. Now you just have to figure out how you can get the things you want, right?”

“I guess…”

Eridan stared at his phone again, which was still sitting on the bar counter. He picked it up, then went through his contacts till he saw Fef’s name. What if he called her now? What would happen?

“What would I say to her? What would we even do?”

“You said she likes water right? Take her to the beach,” said the barista.

The beach.. was that really a good idea? He hadn’t told the barista, but they originally fought because Fef could tell that he didn’t really like to swim. But what was he supposed to tell her? ‘I come here to watch you smile at me’? That was about as lame as it got. But, did he really want to lose her over something like this?

No. He didn’t.

He hit the dial button on his phone.

\--

To say that he regretted calling her would be a lie. It was actually a huge relief. Especially since she agreed to come out to the beach after all.

Fef was reluctant of course, she even asked him if he really wanted to invite her out to the beach, which he did.

And so, at 7 pm the next evening, he was standing on the edge of the beach, staring out at the waves as the sun set, casting long shadows along the sand. He wasn’t entirely sure how he wanted to tell her. He also wanted to figure out what was happening with her and Sol. And he planned to apologize. For a lot of things.

He wanted to set things right between them.

He heard her walking up to him before he saw her. She didn’t say anything, she just stood there. Eridan turned to face her. She stood with her arms crossed, wind blowing through her hair. He swallowed down a lump in his throat. It was cool but he felt warm, like he was going to start sweating.

“So, you called me out here to talk right?” she finally said, breaking the silence between them.

“I w-wanted to apologize,” Eridan said. “I do stupid things sometimes. Well, pretty often, actually. Walkin’ away from you an’ Sol was one of these stupid things. I didn’t mean to get so angry with you. I just didn’t understand the situation… I still don’t.”

“I know what you think it is,” Feferi said. “You’re.. wrong about it.”

“Then please explain it to me!” Eridan said, taking a step forward. He felt so far away from Fef.

“I was… just being silly. I spilled juice on him. It was sticky so I put his shirt in the wash, and then...”

Eridan stared at her. Then he started to laugh. That was when he showed up at the door.

“What? Why are you laughing?” Feferi seemed angry but Eridan knew she was just embarrassed.

“It’s just a huge relief,” he said after taking a breath. “I thought you two were together.”

“E-eh? Why would that be a problem anyways?” Feferi said.

“Ah, well. I guess it wouldn’t,” Eridan said slowly. Neither of them said anything for a moment. “Do you wanna go in the water?”

“What? Eridan, I thought we went over this, I know you dislike swimming. Stop forcing yourself to try to like something just because your friends are doing it. It isn’t cool. It doesn’t make me happy knowing that you are unhappy, and you hardly even go in the water anyways, nevermind actually trying to race!”

Feferi sighed.

“Besides, it’s getting pretty dark to swim don’t you think? Swimming in the ocean when it gets dark can be really dangerous. Basically that is just a really awful idea, I’m sorry.”

“Sorry, I know, it was rash of me to just ask you like that again. Allow me to elaborate. The truth is that… w-well…” Eridan felt his face get hot. There was no way he could just tell her like that, right?

Feferi crossed her arms. “Well?” If he didn’t tell her now, he wasn’t sure when he would have a chance again.

“Feferi.” Eridan took a deep breath. “The truth is that.. I actually kept swimmin’ because I got to see you all the time. And you always shine your brightest when you are in the water. Your face lights up and you look stunning. I really love seeing you like that Fef, and so even though swimmin’ wasn’t something I was interested in, I came all the time just so I could talk to you a little more. Seeing you happy in the water, smiling at me whenever I showed up, it was somethin’ that made me happy.”

There. He said it.

 

 

Feferi stood there, speechless.

“E-Eridan ..I..” her mouth opened and closed multiple times as she tried to find the words to say.

Eridan stepped forward and gently took her hand, leading her to the water. It gently lapped at their feet as they stood at the shore. Eridan dropped his hand to his side.

“Um, you know. Let’s just forget about everythin’ for right now.” Eridan said after a moment.

Feferi made a confused expression.

“Let’s just forget about everythin’ and have a little fun, okay?” Eridan stepped into the water, one foot, another foot, then he ran in, not caring about the huge splash he made as he did so. He turned back to Feferi, who he’d gotten wet from his running. “Whoops, did I get you there?” he asked in a sarcastic tone.

She stood there shocked for a moment, then began to laugh, all the tension flowing out of her face.

“Eridan, you jerk! You got me all wet!” then she ran in after him and pushed him over into the water. He sat in the shallow water for a moment.

“I think you just made yourself more wet than I did though,” he smiled up at her.

“Worth it, since now you’re soaked,” Feferi smiled back. Eridan stood up and splashed her again, purposely getting her face.

“Oh!” Feferi made a disgusted look, then smirked with all her teeth. “Now you’re asking for it!”

They splashed each back and forth until they were both dripping with water. Feferi was laughing now. Eridan’s heart was lifted.

“You’re so beautiful,” he said without thinking.

“Huh?” Feferi said. Eridan stood in front of her for a moment, then he leaned forward, and kissed her on the side of her cheek.

“I don’t expect you to tell me how you feel or anythin’ like that right now. You can even just tell me you don’t want to do anythin’ with me, and that’s okay. I’m happy right now just seeing you laugh like this Fef.”

He took a step back, looking away in embarrassment.

“I’ll wait for you to come to a decision.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again, my tumblr is cronusnyeh.tumblr.com
> 
> And the art is all done by eifaph.tumblr.com

**Author's Note:**

> Wahh thank you for reading! Please feel free to leave constructive critisism in a comment ors omething and let me know how you liked it. (Writing Doc Scratch is probably the hardest thing I've ever done god save me)
> 
> My tumblr is cronusnyeh.tumblr.com, if you wanted to know. :'D
> 
> Art was done by eifaph.tumblr.com.


End file.
